http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1083

copy/pasted my comments from there:

wow.....thats a mill card! there is an event that gives intimidate, right?

also, like that we get an LCG Osha, a character i've never heard of and maybe another Mance? but did we really need a second margery?

do i smell some Others?

Will...not ...rant....about....multiple...versions...of...uniques...in...LCG.

That new Greyjoy army is insane for the discard action it causes. Eight cards?? Geez. It's expensive, but that's some crazy discarding, especially considering it isn't even a unique and one could theoretically play three of them (provided enough resources could be scrounged to pay for those monsters). That's potentially 24 cards down the drain for your opponent just with these. Add in some of the other discard cards Greyjoy has and I think one could assemble a pretty formidable and potentially annoying deck to play against.

Happy to hear Osha is making her way to the LCG along with Sixskins as well.

Fine, then I'll copy and paste mine:

Hmm, the quotation/description for this chapter is a bit more book spoilage than you usually see in the game. Varamyr is the one you've never heard of? He was a fairly prominent Wildling in A Clash of Kings/A Storm of Swords. Also, it has already been revealed that the prologue to A Dance with Dragons is told from Varamyr's perspective (assuming it's ever published).

I hope the new Stannis is cool (I like the Core Set version a lot) and that there are indeed some Others in the pack. I like Margaery's (misspelled in the announcement) character so it's cool to see a new version, but I agree that considering the north theme and the fact that Baratheon isn't exactly hurting for characters with connections to the north it seems an odd choice.

The army doesn't do much for me. It's okay but seems like something that's just going to get stuck in my hand.

Also, regarding uniques, I think there is a balance that has to be struck. Pretty much every chapter pack should have at least one superstar major character from the books to give it some identity and some appeal. Since these characters are some of the most prominent cards in the game, it also helps to give definition to the themes of each set to have eg the shadows Tyrion or the seasons Theon. Obviously too many copies of the same unique gets annoying, but I think they need to reprint the more prominent characters like Stannis even if they haven't exhausted all the other possible minor characters like Osha.

heh read your response on the news feed first and answered you there regarding wilidling names.

The army doesn't do much for me. It's okay but seems like something that's just going to get stuck in my hand.

Obviously too many copies of the same unique gets annoying, but I think they need to reprint the more prominent characters like Stannis even if they haven't exhausted all the other possible minor characters like Osha.

5 gold plot all you need is 3 locations (i.e. a solid flop), or 2 if one is a sea....

i'm fine w/ a second Stannis as its been a while since we got the first one and the first one has kind of lsot his utility with the amount of lords floating around.

Whats extremely annoying is the immediate release of a unique right after a version of it. i.e. Renly in the seasons CP right after the CS, Robert/Joffery in the CP cycle right after KoTS, The Viper right before PoTS, and now Maergery (mostly a fringe character whose biggest impact on the books was being a tool for others to use) in back to back CP cycles....especially in a CP cycle about night's watch and the wall and other's, of which she had 0 interaction. They could have made a new Rainbow Guard character if they didn't want a tie into the wall,or her father or brother for that matter.

Can't really get jazzed about cards i'm not going to see for four months or so. At this point i'm not really paying attention to these teasers - they are released too far in advance of the actual product.

It would be cool to have a more robust Stannis though.

sorry, but for some reason my edit of trying to add a quote not only didn't work, but also kept the page unread.

Stag, isn't that the point of a teaser? I had fun dangling this card in front of our GJ mill players nose

Lars said:

Am I the only one who like new versions (even if it is "immediate" release)? Most important for me is if they are playable in cool new ways.

why can't that cool new 'thing' be applied to one of the hundreds of named characters in the book?

The glass is half full

i'm confused. it has nothing to do with being optimistic or pesmesitic. It has to do with a game based on an IP that is rich and flavorful with characters and the game isn't. I for one would like to have Renly w/ his full rainbow guard, or Robb w/ his bannermen on the campaign trail, or some Tullies! not to mention Arryan's and other houses. It would be nice to see Lanni have some other characters rather then house lannister and hanger's one from their house hold (attendent, informer, castellan, etc) even in the non-unique slot, things like House Brax Infantry (i believe) added and spoke to the flavor within the books.

Yes, I agree, but if I can't get these new characters (because of some designer stuff) I'm still very happy with second Margaery. It's still better than non-unique peasant or something That's why the glass is half full. And with new Margaery there is a chance that this time the picture will be pretty.

Rogue30,

While I actually agree with Lars that I prefer more unique named characters than multiple versions, unfortunately Lars sometimes comes off like a curmudgeon. Probably just the tone of different posting styles.

LaughingTree said:

Or, the interpretation thereof...

Anyways... I don't mind a second copy of Margaery, it's the 3rd and 4th copies of uniques in a short time period that bug me. Although, I do question her relevance in this CP cycle.

8 gold is a lot in LCG! I could see the GJ Army easily getting stuck in my hand. But it sure does have a wow factor to it.

I'm really hoping the Night's Watch end up bringing something to the table. I like what I see so far, but hope they aren't completely useless without the agendas (assuming we'll see one for each icon). The Wildlings, on the other hand, seem to be playable even without any agendas (so far), and I only hope that their agandas don't put them over the top. I'm excited to see what's in the next couple of CPs.

I wonder what House will be connected with wildlings, if any. I mean thematically, not playable. In the books only Jon Snow was connected (House Stark?).

I agree that having the same unique reprinted in successive (or near successive) releases is not really striking the appropriate balance. In general, I think it's fine for a handful of Eddard, Arya, Tyrion, Dany, Davos, Jaime, and Jon to appear in every chapter pack cycle because they are generally the favorite characters of people who read the books, but they should be spaced out as much as possible.

Rogue30, I also hope the new Margaery has some better art. My impression from the books is that she is one of the most beautiful girls in Westeros and the KLE version didn't do much for me.

Lars, I agree that 8 gold is not impossible. Maybe after I see a good discard deck I'll come around to the army. To me though it just seems like too large of an allocation of resources on one character (first you have to come up with 8 gold and then you get a character than can only help you in one challenge per turn).

Well, don't forget Osha's connections to Stark in the books, and she was a Wildling if I recall.

schrecklich said:

Well, what if there was an event that said pay 5 gold to discard 8 cards?

my main problem will mill cards is that they are usually one shot things (only mill cards i liked before this was Old Euron and new Desperate Looters, both multi shots and looters was also claim soak). Now it seems there are some viable ones. Drowned Fanatic is reusable and now you have somehting that hits a large chunk at once (these 2 w/ fury of the kraken now can discard 10 cards w/ minimal effort, a very large chunk). that one charcater only helps in one challenge, but its a hell of a challenge. you could combine him w/ make an example to count 8 STR, or use the event that JJ gave the name of in the article comments to give intimidate to get it unopposed...and that opens a whole new world up to GJ. or let him stand there to win dom. PLus he has a war crest so theres price of war or distinct mastery combos.... He gives GJ teeth outside of winter dependency and imagine telling your opponent to discard his setup hand +1....yesh.

BTW, I find my tone to be Brash

The brash tone might have bothered me when I first started posting, but I've been desensitized by this point.

I think I pretty much agree with you, Lars. I think a deck discard strategy needs to be based around a more reliable, repeatable effect, but this army could give such a strategy some teeth. It has other upsides too. I think it just doesn't match my play style well enough though. Maybe I'll try building a deck to complement when it comes out and see. Usually, when I use my 5 gold plot (or plots), it's to put multiple threats onto the board and I'd probably choose to do that even if I had the option of dropping one big army instead. My play style might not be the best one though. I should experiment more. I also don't really like discarding the seas (without which this army gets harder to play). I like running them in decks with lots of influence costs and discarding them when it allows for a particularly swingy turn, but in general I have had the importance of card advantage ground into me too much perhaps.

schrecklich said:

that was in regard to a previous posters comment, just tacked it on to the end of our discussion.